Being very cold

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Strange weather this year up here in the hills.

Normally we get quite similar stuff to MB, even though he's on the other side of the Atlantic.

But this year, after early snow in November, it then warmed up to spring-like temperatures. So much so that in early Feb our roof had a noticeable covering of pollen from forest trees that had been fooled by it. Meanwhile MB was enduring a bitter sub-zero world.

And now MB has a mini heat-wave, whereas here for the last fortnight the thermometer's been permanently below zero, significantly so overnight. All outside water troughs are frozen solid, and ground's frozen to such an extent that we have frost heave fouling the easy opening of garage doors.

So far house furnace is coping fine and we're cozy indoors with no issues of either water supply nor foul-water drainage. IBCs of reserve water in the main barn are still unfrozen, although the backup cold water tank in the loft is frozen solid now.

The house's Scandinavian tin roof is performing well and has shed snow completely, whereas the garage roof which remains with traditional tiles, has had a deep layer of snow on it for more than a fortnight. As a result, I'm pretty sure that I'll have a good number of frost "blown" tiles to replace in the Spring.

We're not looking forward to the quagmire awaits us when everything thaws:-(